


Tuuli Hollola Gets It

by wavewright62



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Bad Ending, Body Horror, Bwahahaha, Can we equate Kade with Witches necessarily?, Dark, Dark Magic, Exorcisms, Family, Family Bonding, Gen, Just a soupcon of body horror though, Magic, Possession, Trick or Treat: Trick, Witches, amalgamation into an eldritch horror is a type of family bonding sure, kade - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 13:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21208982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wavewright62/pseuds/wavewright62
Summary: They thought she was on her deathbed, but then she felt like dancing...





	Tuuli Hollola Gets It

**Author's Note:**

  * For [opalmatrix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/gifts).

Veeti sidled carefully into the boat’s aft cabin, bringing his mother some hot fish broth that Saku had prepared. Tuuli had first manifested the telltale Rash last week, and had rapidly declined. She beckoned her son to come closer.

“Veeti, listen. The Rash brings comfort, the Rash brings release,” she whispered in Veeti’s ear. “I feel so free, like this body doesn’t need to hold me anymore. I am ….clean.” She slowly reached up and removed her breath mask, blowing a long puff of breath at her son. He grimaced at the stench of rotting teeth emanating from his mother and turned away. She raised herself on one elbow and threw back the blankets. The sheet stuck to the sores on Tuuli’s body in brown and red blotches, catching and swirling around her emaciated legs as she leapt from the bed with surprising energy and left the cabin.

Her eyes bright with fever, Tuuli sprang over the railing and down the ladder. She whirled in a frenzied dance upon the boards of the dock. “Can you see them?,” she exulted, “they are free! We can _all_ be free! We never have to be afraid again!” She stopped whirling and turned back to the boat, “Eino,” she commanded, “come here.” She beckoned to him from the bank, her teeth bared in a parody of a smile. “We will be together, as always.” Eino stared transfixed at his wife. The rope fell unheeded from his hands as they fell slack at his sides. Veeti’s shouts fell on deaf ears as Eino hoisted his leg over the railing. Aino cried, clutching at Eino’s wrists but without a word he shook off her hands and climbed down the ladder. Wordlessly he stood next to Tuuli, as she called out to her family, in tones laden with the entreaty of thousands of voices.

Ensi cowered against the cabin, eyes darting around at the shades streaming past her toward Auntie Tuuli. Her auntie was not making sense; the voices of the shades did not sound as happy as she said they did. Aino lunged to follow her brother down the ladder, but Saku elbowed aside his tearful wife as he brusquely pulled up the ladder. Veeti covered his ears, shouting over his mother’s entreaties, chanting _NO_ over and over.

Ensi ignored the shades and rushed over to her mother, who was now kneeling on the deck, wailing for Saku to allow her off the boat to join Tuuli and Eino. “Mamma,” Ensi pulled on her arm, “don’t go!”

Aino stopped wailing, lifting red-rimmed eyes to meet her daughter’s tearful ones. “Ensi,” she breathed. She closed her eyes as she drew a shuddering breath, then raised her eyes to Ensi’s again. She smiled, calm falling over her face. She reached up to Ensi’s dishevelled hair, smoothing it back behind her ear, smiling as though Tuuli wasn’t still screeching on the bank below her. “Shall we go, my Ensi?”

An instinct made Ensi close her eyes tightly to avoid seeing the shade peering back at her from her mother’s gaze. Ensi’s insides clenched. There was a taste of river reeds and lake mud in her mouth, and words started tumbling out, words she couldn’t recall later, although their rhythm would one day come as second nature to her. The new words called upon Vellamo, mistress of the waterways, to protect them all, and banish the kade that had hold of Aino.

As the words filled the air, a rush of water fell out of Aino’s open mouth and she fell senseless to the deck. The words were still coming unbidden from Ensi’s mouth, high and quavery in her child’s voice, as she watched a shape lift itself out of her mother and zoom back toward her Auntie Tuuli. The words left her, and she fell unconscious to the deck beside her mother.

Saku gunned the boat’s engine to pull away from the dock. Veeti stopped chanting but didn’t remove his hands from his ears.

**Author's Note:**

> Ssshh, it's just a little ghost story, don't worry. There's no way the infamous 'It' is Tuuli Hollola, don't be silly. Also, the story can't be "true", Kaino isn't in it. There, you see?


End file.
